The Dartmouth women's hockey team split its weekend series against Princeton University and Quinnipiac University, defeating the Tigers, 3-1, in Princeton before falling to the Bobcats, 8-3, in Hamden, Conn. The weekend featured both strong goaltending in the season opener against Princeton (2-2-0, 0-2-0 ECAC) and costly mistakes in the game against Quinnipiac (4-3-1, 1-1-0 ECAC).
The Big Green (1-1-0, 1-1-0 ECAC) came out firing against the Tigers on Friday, scoring just five-and-a-half minutes into the game. The first goal of this year's regular season came off the stick of Karlee Odland '15, who cashed in the first power play opportunity of the campaign for the Big Green off of assists from Olivia Whitford '16 and Margaux Sharp '13.
The score came in a dominating first period for the Big Green, which tallied 11 shots to the Tigers' three. Lindsay Holdcroft '14 was strong in net when she had to be, helping the Big Green coast to a 1-0 period. Princeton players took five penalties in the opening frame.
"Our first period, we were so pumped and excited to play as a team," Laura Stacey '16 said. "In the second, we kind of laid back and had a lull."
The game settled down more in the second period, with each team notching 10 shots at the opposing goaltender. The Big Green spent the majority of the period at a disadvantage, with four penalties in the frame.
Reagan Fischer '12 doubled the Dartmouth lead with her first goal of the season, which came just over the nine-minute mark of the second off of an assist from Sharp. Fischer curled out of the corner and backhanded the puck toward the goalie's glove side through an Odland screen and into the back of the net.
Princeton drew within one goal with a tip shot during a penalty to Morgan Illikainen '15 late in the frame, but the sophomore defender redeemed herself with a power-play assist to Lindsey Allen '16 with 20 seconds to go in the second period.
"It was really exciting to score my first goal," Allen said. "I didn't even realize it went in at first. It was a real relief to get that out of the way."
The third period was scoreless even though both teams tallied 10 shots. Holdcroft stood on her head to seal the win, stopping the Tigers on two five-on-three opportunities, including one that became a six-on-three when Princeton pulled its goalie. In the last three minutes of the game, the Tigers peppered Holdcroft with five shots, all of which the junior turned away en route to 22 saves on the evening.
"It was really a character win," Stacey said. "People were doing everything they could to prevent Princeton from scoring again."
The next afternoon, in the game against the Bobcats, the Big Green fell behind early and could never climb back. Katie Milligan '15 got the start in net for the Dartmouth women and stopped 25 of the Bobcats' 33 shots on goal.
The Bobcats came out strong, tallying two goals on 13 first-period shots. Allen started the scoring for the Big Green off assists from Fischer and Stacey. Stacey continued her strong showing from the scrimmage against McGill University with two assists on Saturday.
"It felt really good to get on the score sheet," Stacey said. "I was really nervous going into this weekend, and my linemates really supported me and helped guide me through my first college games."
Quinnipiac responded with two late second-period goals of their own to take a 4-1 lead into the third.
Dartmouth pressed back but left itself open to defensive breakdowns and mistakes and never got the lead closer than two goals in the third period. Sasha Nanji '13 scored her first goal of the season, but at that point the score was already 6-1 in favor of the Bobcats.
Quinnipiac scored two more, so the game was all but over when Camille Dumais '13 scored with just under two-and-a-half minutes left in the game.
"Quinnipiac had some offensive talent that we hadn't seen yet," Fischer said. "It shows how talented our league is."
The Big Green took 13 penalties over the weekend and gave up three power-play goals. On the other side of the ice, the Dartmouth women scored on three of their eight power play opportunities.
"We have to keep our feet moving next weekend," Allen said. "Against Quinnipiac, we let them take the play to us and let them push us around. We didn't engage, which led to the trippings and hookings."
This weekend, the Big Green will travel to Brown University and Yale University, both of which pushed perennial powerhouse Cornell University to the brink this past weekend.
"We learned a lot last weekend," Fischer said. "It sucks to go through a game like we did against Quinnipiac, but it can teach us a lot. We're going to have to focus more on discipline and playing our game."
